


On The Wings Of A Butterfly

by WittGrantWriting



Category: The Umbrella Academy (TV)
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-10-04
Updated: 2020-11-07
Packaged: 2021-03-07 19:33:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 18,432
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26812951
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WittGrantWriting/pseuds/WittGrantWriting
Summary: After returning to 2019, Klaus found himself overwhelmed by the changes caused by The Umbrella Academy's time in the '60s. As a result, he ended up slipping back into old habits and old depressions. While he thought he had come to terms with his failure at preventing Dave from enlisting, it still ate at him day and night. After months of incessant intoxication and self-destructing tendencies, his siblings could no longer standby and watch their brother waste away. A shocking revelation brings Klaus back to Dallas, but what he discovers there is more than he ever expected.New timeline, new adventures..
Comments: 1
Kudos: 8





	1. Chapter One

The pitter-patter of the rain hitting the window, coupled with the leak in the ceiling dripping into a pot he had set on the floor, was almost hypnotic for Klaus as he lay silently on his bed. He and Diego moved into this run-down apartment building after  
returning from their time in the ’60s. Mr. Hargreeves had adopted different children, and the house they once called home was no longer theirs and was full of unfamiliar faces, well except for the face of his previously deceased sibling, Ben. Klaus let Dave’s military tags that still hung around his neck, gently glide through his fingers as he stared at the ceiling. The tags had almost become completely smoothed down by his fingers, but Dave’s name remained. It had been two months since the Umbrella Academy had returned to 2019 after preventing an apocalypse that which, ironically, they were once again the cause of. Klaus hated this new reality that was now his. He had lost Dave again, even after trying so desperately to save him. He also lost Ben again.. well, at least the Ben he grew up with and knew; his best friend. This new Sparrow Academy’s version of Ben, who no longer even went by that name despite Klaus’s efforts, was just a shitty reminder that he had just lost two significant people to him, and no matter how hard he tried, he could never get them back. Klaus sat up in his bed and traced his finger along the outline of the umbrella tattoo on his forearm. His least favorite of all of his tattoo’s. He hated it even more than the random tattoos he got when he was too drugged up even to remember getting till weeks later; at least they had a story. Now, The Umbrella Academy didn’t even technically exist, just the damn Sparrow Academy. Klaus lifted his hand to wipe away a tear he didn’t even realize had escaped his eye. “Fuck” he muttered silently before leaning down and reaching down to his floor. After a few seconds of feeling around, Klaus pulled out a bottle of rum from beneath his bed; only a small mouthful remained at the bottom. He opened the bottle and got ready to take the final drink when the sudden brightness of lightning and the roar of thunder echoed through his room. The shock caused Klaus to drop his bottle, spilling the remaining contents onto his clothes. Klaus let out a pitiful groan and rose to his feet. He sauntered over to his window and looked out. The lighting had hit a tree right outside his window. A giant crack down the center of the tree with chunks of bark scattered around the base. The left side of Klaus’s lip twitched upwards as he couldn’t help but feel a bit of comfort knowing that he wasn’t the only thing falling apart in that moment.

“That was a close one… wasn’t it, Dave” he whispered sadly, clutching hard to Dave’s tags once more before pulling off his rum-stained shirt, tossing it to the ground, and crawling back into bed. He shoved his head into his pillow and let out one painful cry into the fabric before allowing the sound of the rain to lull him into a deep sleep. He dreamt of nothing. He hadn’t dreamt since their return. All he saw was darkness, all he felt was numbness, and all he heard was dead silence. That was until a familiar voice woke him up the next morning.  
“Klaus, get the fuck up,” Diego said while pulling the blankets off of Klaus’s half-naked body and threw a towel at him. The midday’s sun reflected off the sleeping boy’s pale, thin body as he let out a tired groan. Klaus then slowly positioned himself in the fetal position, using the small towel as a blanket to cover the top part of his body. “You stink, and it’s laundry day.” Diego had pulled the short straw and was stuck rooming with Klaus after Reginald Hargreeves had kicked them out of their home. Diego didn’t mind at all though, the two literally just pulled the two shortest straws of the bunch and were paired together. Yes, his brother was a handful, but he would honestly rather put up with Klaus’s shenanigans than Luther or Five immensely aggravating ego. “Klaus, I’m not kidding. The rest of the family is coming over today. They’ll kill me if they see you like this. Do you really want to go stay with Allison?” 

“Fine, fine, fine,” Klaus muttered as he sat up in his bed. He stretched his body out while he yawned. “I’ll get ready while you make breakfast. I’m thinking… Eggs Benedict and some Petit Pains au Chocolat. Deal?” Klaus stuck out his hand with a smile as if to confirm the deal with Diego. Diego immediately slapped it away. “Do I look like Mom to you?” Klaus leaned back and played with the ends of his greasy, matted hair. “Who is this ‘Mom’ you are referring to? Oh.. did you forget she doesn’t exist in this timeline thanks to you, Vanya, and Dear Old Dad... my apologies, I mean, Mr. Hargreeves.” Diego clenched his fists. He knew Klaus was right. If he hadn’t warned the original Grace of his father’s secret plan to assassinate JFK, she wouldn’t have left him. If he and his siblings had not made idiots of themselves in front of their father that night, maybe he still would have adopted them. In this timeline, they weren’t adopted, Vanya’s picky eating didn’t require someone that could survive being hurled out a window by an unnatural force. Mom wasn’t needed and, therefore, didn’t exist. He hated these pieces of reality that Klaus consistently reminded him of. It made him angry. But after two months of living with Klaus, he realized that he couldn’t respond to his antics with anger. Klaus was extremely vulnerable and would act irrationally to any form of aggression. Diego took a deep breath and unclenched his fist. “Are waffles alright?” Klaus looked up at him and gave a soft smile. “Waffles would be perfect.” Diego nodded and started to leave the room, but not before turning around to sweeten the deal. “Hey, if you get your laundry ready to go now, I’ll make a quick trip to the store for strawberries and whipped cream.” Klaus let out an odd sound, a sound that only through years of being his brother you would know was actually a positive reaction and not him passing a kidney stone. “Oh... my... God… “Klaus said, getting up and walking to his brother, wrapping his arms around his shoulders. “You are the best brother and roommate ever” Diego lightly swatted at his brother’s arms to try and get him to loosen his grip. “Klaus, I wasn’t kidding about the smell. Get off me, you stink!”  
“I’m also extremely hungover.” Klaus sighed and released his brother before looking around his room, dirty clothes covering the floor. “Can’t we just burn everything and go shopping?” he called to his brother, who had already left the room. “No,” Diego yelled back. Klaus stumbled to the door of his room and leaned against the frame, looking at his brother, who had put on his favorite leather jacket and pulled out his keys. “Alright, alright… it was just a thought. Give me twenty minutes.” Deigo shot his brother a playful smile before exiting the apartment. “I’ll give you ten,” 

“The shit I do for some strawberries and cream.”

Klaus quickly grabbed his laundry and threw it into a bag. A lot of the clothes smelled of liquor, and it made him feel a bit queazy. Luckily this shitty apartment had one of his favorite things in the world, a tub. Klaus lightly tossed his bag next to the door by Diego’s much larger bag of clothes before heading to the bathroom and turning on the hot water. He stared at himself in the mirror for a minute. He touched the poorly maintained hair on his face. He knew he’d have to freshen up a little bit before his family came. If he didn’t, it would just be a nonstop whirlwind of questions and concern. He didn’t mind that he and his siblings were acting more like a family; it only took 30 years and a few apocalypses for it to happen. But right now, what he was dealing with, he just needed to do it on his own. He opened the medicine cabinet and took out his brother’s favorite shaving cream and his own barely-used razor and began to shave away all the signs of desperation and depression that he could in such a short amount of time.

“Klaus! Look who I ran into at the store!” Diego called while entering the apartment, his four other siblings following behind. Klaus quickly popped out his head out of the bathroom. “Oh! You guys are early. I just got into my bath. You guys get started without me, and I’ll get a summarization at the end. And Diego! My love, I’ll take my waffles in the tub, por favor.”  
Before anyone could even respond to him, Klaus shut the door and returned to his soak. Luther walked in and sat down on the oversized armchair that Klaus and Diego had secretly chosen for Luther’s giant body. “He hasn’t changed much, has he?”

.  
“It’s different when it’s just us here… Guys, I honestly am at a loss as to what to do with Klaus. He is getting worse.” Diego said as he and Vanya headed towards the kitchen, setting down the bags of groceries that no one else had offered to help bring up.  
“At this point, the simplest solution would be just to get Allison to rumor him into forgetting Dave’s existence.” suggested Five as he teleported himself to the kitchen and poured himself a cup of coffee.  
“Absolutely not, Five.” Allison said, shaking her head, “After what happened with Vanya, I refuse to use my powers on you guys.”

“What about that time you rumored me to punch myself in the face?” called Diego from the kitchen as he began to prep Klaus’s waffles. Vanya had moved to sit on the floor by Luther’s feet, opening up her laptop, hoping that maybe they’d find some helpful tips that could help their brother.

“You had that coming, and I’m honestly surprised it hasn’t happened again since.” Five scoffed as he teleported himself to sit on the rocking chair by the window. “Big talk from a guy drinking my coffee,” Diego said as he poked his head out of the kitchen, sticking out his tongue. “You call this coffee? I’ve had muddy water that tasted better than this.”

Luther stood up from his seat, accidentally knocking into Vanya as he did. “Sorry, Vanya,” to which she responded with a forgiving smile. He then walked between Five and Diego, breaking their focus on each other. “Guys, focus, we need to think of something. The last little bit has taken a toll on us, but we are moving forward. Klaus is not. We need to think of a plan.”  
“Why don’t we have a service for Dave? Maybe give Klaus some closure,” suggested Allison.  
“Umm.. guys” Vanya tried to get the attention of her siblings but failed.  
“That might work… There is also that memorial in Washington. We could go there.” suggested Luther.  
“Gu-”  
“Or we could go to Dallas, see his hometown…” pipped in Diego.  
Fed up with her siblings ignoring her, Vanya uses her powers to cause the small bowl of fruit on the table to explode.  
“Vanya, what the fuck!” shouted Diego.  
“Well, now that I have your attention. I’m on the National Archives Database… Dave isn’t listed as a fallen soldier.”  
“There has to be a mistake. Are you sure?” Allison said, walking over and peering over her sister’s shoulder to look at her computer screen.  
“Yeah, I checked. David Joseph Katz; his name isn’t there.”  
Five looked around at his brothers before landing his gaze on his two sisters. “Allison… I know you’d never rumor one of your siblings, but do the Sparrow Academy really count?”  
Allison gave Five a knowing smile before walking over to him and reaching out to grab his hand. In a flash, the two disappeared.  
“Do you think Five will ever let us in on a plan before executing the said plan?” Luther asked the remaining two siblings in the room.  
“Given our track record of following them when he does… I’m going to say no,” Vanya answered before shutting her laptop.  
“Good point,” Luther said as he sat back down.  
“I’m going to finish making Klaus his waffles,” Diego muttered quietly as he returned to the kitchen.  
“I’ll prepare strawberries!” offered Vanya as she followed Diego.  
“I’ll… be here,” Luther muttered quietly to himself before staring at the blank walls, waiting for whatever was about to happen, to happen, 

An hour had passed, and there was no sign of Allison or Five. Luther looked at Vanya and Diego, who were finishing up their own waffles. “How long do you think it is going to take them?”  
“Take who?” questioned Klaus as he walked into the room, drying his damp hair with a towel.  
Before anyone could answer, a flash of light filled the small living room, and Allison and Five appear back into the room, startling Klaus in the process. “For fuck’s sake. You nearly made me shit out my heart.”  
Allison didn’t respond with words, but simply gave Klaus a soft smile and slowly pulled him into a hug. “Umm… you’re forgiven?”  
“Was I right?” Vanya asked, looking at Allison, who gave her a small nod.  
“Right about what? Oh my god, am I dying? Or did you all die…. And this is all-”  
“No, Klaus, we are all very much alive,” Diego said, reaching out and giving his brother’s shoulder a small squeeze.  
“Then what in the fucked up timeline is going on?”  
Five spoke up. “Klaus, you may want to sit down for this. We have something to tell you.” Klaus stared at his brother, skeptically. Klaus was very used to Five incessant need for everything to be taken a bit too seriously; living 40 years in an apocalyptic wasteland and time jumping to prevent another two still hadn’t chilled out this young 50-something year old. However, it was the look on his other siblings' faces’ that told him Five’s intenseness was not misplaced. Klaus took a seat next to his brother, Luther, who gave him a friendly pat on the knee, which was very odd and out of character for his brother to do. Klaus looked at him, confused, and Luther just smiled back.  
“If this is one of those interventions, I’ll be needing a drink.” Klaus started to get up, but Luther pulled him back down, a smile still on his face.  
“Vanya, since you were the one that discovered it, would you like to tell Klaus,” Five said, gesturing to Klaus. “Tell me what?”  
“It’s Dave,” Vanya said suddenly. Klaus felt his heart sink into his stomach. He reached up and touched the tags softly between his fingertips. “I know.. It’s been bad, and I haven’t been myself, I just…” before Klaus could finish, Vanya interrupted him. “No, no. Klaus, that’s not it. Dave didn’t die in Vietnam.”  
“Wait...what?” Klaus could feel his body starting to tremor. He couldn’t believe what he had just heard. “He’s alive?”  
“Well, not exactly…” Five said, looking at Allison. “He passed away last year. Heart failure. He’s buried at the Lincoln Cemetery.”  
“How…” The words were caught in Klaus’s throat; he gave himself a second more trying to ask again. “How do you guys know all this?”  
“I may have rumored a certain Sparrow Academy member into using her powers to manipulate technology to do some digging into otherwise classified information.”  
“But you gave up rumoring people... “Klaus was shocked at his sister’s use of her powers.  
“She did it for you, Klaus; she did it because she loves you,” Diego replied.  
Klaus couldn’t help but tear up. “I don’t know what to say,” he quietly whispered, afraid any more volume would cause his voice to crack. His two sisters got up and pulled their brother into a tight hug. “Screw it, let me get in there, too!” said Diego as he wiped away a small tear from his cheek before wrapping his arms around his siblings. Klaus let out a short laugh. Yes, Dave was gone, but for once, he felt a glimmer of hope. “Guys, I have to go…”  
Allison pulled away from her brother and gave his hair a soft ruffle. “We also took care of that. Your flight leaves in three hours. Now go pack. Five will take you to the airport” Without another word, Klaus rushed into his room, pulling Vanya and Allison along with him. Five swirled the remainder of his now cold coffee and muttered to himself, “From superhero to super uber, oh how the mighty have fallen.” Diego walked over and rested his hand on the child-sized body of his brother and, “Come on Five, look at what happened today. Can’t you be a bit more positive” Five looked at the hand now resting on his shoulder before taking his own and brushing it off. “Positive, huh? Well, I’m positive you’re incapable of making a decent cup of coffee. Tell Klaus I’ll be back in an hour, I’m going to get the good stuff” And with a flash, Five disappeared.

Diego stood in shock before turning to his ape-bodied brother. “Why that little shit.” 

\---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Klaus walked along the airplane’s thin aisle until he stood in front of his seat; A3, First Class. This was the first time that Klaus found himself envious of the Sparrow Academy’s tech-savvy superhero. Sure, they had Allison that could have just as easily ‘persuaded’ the airline to bump them up, but he knew if she did, they wouldn’t hear the end of it from her. Klaus tossed his bag up into the overhead compartment and then sunk into his spacious airplane chair. He let out a soft sigh as he reclined his chair back. The luxurious chair was a nice change for Klaus. He pressed his face against the fabric and inhaled deeply. It smelled fresh, unlike his bed at home that simply smelled of sweat and stale liquor. He looked up to see that his actions had caused him to receive a few judgemental stares, but Klaus brushed it off. The overly critical judgment of his frivolous actions wasn’t new to him. He grew up with these stares from strangers, and he sure as hell got them from the man he considered his father. Klaus then put his chair up in the upright position and situated himself comfortably, fiddling with his fingers as he waited for the aircraft to take off. He did his best to follow along with the flight attendants’ safety presentation, but he couldn’t help but to occasionally zone out from time to time. As the plane took off, he gave Dave’s tag a small kiss as if to say a little prayer that the flight would make it safely to Dallas so they could be reunited. 

Once the plane was safely in the air and the captain turned the seatbelt signs off, Klaus stood up and pulled out his bag from the compartment above. He opened the bag and got out an envelope Allison had given him before he had left. Inside was a poorly drawn map of where Dave’s grave was located in the cemetery. He traced the small heart that Allison had drawn to mark where his lover lay and smiled softly to himself. “I’m coming, Dave.” Klaus then turned his attention towards a flight attendant that stood nearby. He waved to her with his best smile plastered across his face; just because the people around him thought he looked like he didn’t belong here didn’t mean he couldn’t be a gentleman. The flight attendant returned his smile with one of her own and made her way over. “Yes sir, may I help you?” Klaus took note of her kind smile and sort of melody to her voice. She was either a kind soul or very good at her job. “Sir?” she repeated. “Oh, yes! Sorry! May I get a glass of whiskey, neat and an ice water, please” The flight attendant gave him a nod. “Of course, sir. I will be back in a moment with your drinks” she then darted off down the aisle, greeting the rest of the passengers on her way. Klaus leaned toward the window and peered out over the clouds. The view was beautiful, and the brightness of the sun didn’t make him want to rip his eyes out and stab them with one of his brother’s many knives. How the plane moved through the clouds was almost therapeutic for him. It wasn’t until he heard the soft voice of the woman who had taken his order earlier fill his ears that he had noticed he had once again let his mind wander from reality. “Here you are, sir. Your whiskey neat and ice water” Klaus quickly put down his tray table, and the woman placed his drinks upon it, offering him a few napkins at the same time. Klaus thanked the woman and looked down at the two glasses in front of him. “Is there anything else I can do for you, sir?” she asked, giving her head a small tilt to the side. Klaus turned to the woman and glanced down at her name tag before smiling up at her. “No, this is perfect. Thank you, Jamie.” She gave Klaus a final nod before heading off to aid another passenger that had gestured for her attention.

Klaus picked up the glass of whiskey in his hand and gave the liquid a small swirl. To be honest, he never really got all the hype around this particular drink. He just knew that all the wealthy debutante’s husbands always ordered this at special events and affairs, and it was always neat, whatever that meant. Klaus always preferred his liquor straight from the bottle and never cared for the fancy tassels and twists. He held the glass up to his nose and let the oaky smell of the alcohol rise to meet him. “Not bad,” he whispered to himself. It felt fitting to order such a drink for his journey back to where he had last seen Dave; five years before they had technically met. He then took the cool glass and held it up against his lips, but for some reason could not bring himself to tip the glass any further. Klaus placed the glass down back on the table with a soft sigh and picked up the glass of ice water, sipping on his slowly. While the drink did seem fitting for the location and all of its memories, once it came down to it, Klaus realized he wanted to be completely sober for the occasion. He wanted to see Dave again with a mind unclouded by booze and self-hatred. Klaus reclined his chair back once more and curled up into a comfortable position, drifting off into another one of his dreamless sleeps.

It wasn’t long before Klaus was suddenly awoken by the sound of the seatbelt sign dinging to life and the captain’s voice making its way through the plane, instructing everyone to place their seats in the upright position for landing. Klaus sat up, and a small, thin blanket that was not there before he had fallen asleep, slid off of his body and onto his lap. He assumed that the flight attendant from earlier must have placed it on him while he was sleeping, bringing Klaus to the conclusion that she was both a genuine human who was genuinely good at her job. He folded the small blanket and placed it next to him. He then buckled his seatbelt and looked out the window. The sky had cleared of all it’s clouds, and he could see Dallas down below him. He felt his heart skip a beat as the plane began its descent to the runway. Klaus didn’t understand what he was so nervous about. It wasn’t that long ago that he had stood there, helpless and unable to prevent the man he loved more than anything in the world from walking away from him, knowing that Dave’s life would come to an end in a cold, wet trench. What hurt, even more, was knowing that in this timeline, he knew he wouldn’t be able to hold Dave as the light that had captivated and cared for Klaus faded from Dave’s eyes. But now he knew that Dave didn’t die, he was wrong, and he was ecstatic. Even though they could not share more time together, Dave was able to live a long and hopefully happy and fulfilling life. That’s all Klaus ever wanted for him. So why was his heart racing?  
Klaus had decided to spend his first night in Dallas at the hotel his siblings had booked for him. As much as he desperately wanted to drive straight from the airport to the cemetery, he knew he would fall victim to his heavy eyelids and would have fallen asleep in the graveyard. Even he knew better than to rest in a cemetery at night. Klaus curled up into his king-sized bed and turned on the television. He could barely pay attention to the show playing on the television as his eyes fluttered until they finally closed for the rest of the night.

Klaus woke up to the blinding sun shining into the window. As he sat up, he quietly cursed himself for not shutting the curtains before falling asleep. Accepting that he was awake for the day, Klaus rolled out of bed and stumbled into the bathroom and started running the water for his morning bath. As he waited for the water to fill the tub, he called for room service to bring him their most extravagant breakfast meals. Since the Sparrow Academy had secretly sponsored the trip, Klaus had decided that he would make the most of the moment. After his luxurious soak and breakfast, Klaus made his way down to the lobby and had the front desk call him a taxi.

When the taxi pulled up to the cemetery entrance, Klaus could feel his heart sink a bit. He thanked the taxi driver for his services and exited the vehicle. Klaus was never the biggest fan of cemeteries. Being able to see the dead never made it a particularly alluring place for him growing up. Klaus pulled out the envelope from Allison once more and glanced at it for a moment before beginning his trek to Dave’s resting place. One look was all he needed. It was like a magical force of nature had guided Klaus to where he needed to be. Within a few minutes, he was stood in front of a grave that read ‘David Joseph Katz 1940 - 2019’ Klaus knelt in front of the headstone and lightly ran his finger over the name, taking in comfort from 2019 written as his death year. 

“Much better than 1968. You were able to have forty-one more years this time around.” 

Klaus’s eyes then traveled down to what was written underneath “A Loving Husband and Father,” he read aloud. “You even had yourself a little family of your own” He glanced over to the stone to the right of Dave’s that read ‘Suzanne Jane Katz 1950 - 2003.’ He was a bit taken aback that Dave ended up marrying. During their time together, Klaus definitely had a strong feeling that Dave was not all that interested in the opposite gender. But then again, he had been wrong about many things in his life, so who was he to say. The sixties were also a very different time. Hell, Vanya’s previous romance with that little country farm girl had the CIA on her ass, accusing her of being a Russian spy. 

Klaus rose from his kneeling position and stood in front of Dave’s wife’s grave, resting his hand on it gently. “I know we never had the pleasure of meeting, but if you made Dave as happy as he made me, well... thank you.” Klaus closed his eyes and gave a moment of respect to the woman he wished he could have been. 

Hours passed. Klaus sat in front of Dave’s grave and spoke to it as if it was Dave himself. He told him all the things he wished he would have been able to say to him before. He told him about his siblings and the sticky situations they always seemed to be in: from their childhood adventures to now. He told him how much of a prick his dad was in the previous timeline, not that he wasn’t still very much a prick in this timeline as well, but it was different. To be honest, as much as he had resented the man and avoided him for many years, he found himself missing the sadistic bastard, not that he’d tell anyone. He let everything spill, all of his hopes, dreams, regrets, whatever was on his heart, he poured it out in no particular order to this cold chunk of cement that marked where Dave’s body lay decaying under the soft, slightly damp ground. And for the first time in a long time, Klaus felt truly happy, like everything could actually turn around for him. He was about to begin telling him about the Sparrow Academy and his troubles adjusting to the new version of his brother, Ben when his stomach interrupted him. “Damn it. I guess that is one of the limitations of the living; we must eat”

Klaus stood up and brushed the dirt off his jeans before hugging Dave’s grave, whispering softly, “I’ll come back tomorrow, and we can continue our little chat.” 

As Klaus turned around, a petite woman with long blond hair stood in front of him. She was wearing dark sunglasses that hid her eyes, but Klaus could feel her eyes scanning his body. It felt different than the passengers on the plane, though. There was no aura of judgment radiating from her. It was almost like she was looking for an answer that she was almost sure of but needed that one final piece of the puzzle. After a moment of awkward silence, she finally spoke, the words that so effortlessly left her lips sent shivers down his spine.

“Prophet?”

Fuck.

While Klaus had become more comfortable with communication with the dead, he wasn’t in the mood to deal with this particular ghost from his past. “Sorry, I think you got the wrong guy.” Klaus sputtered out as he quickly rushed past the woman. He could hear her call out to him, but couldn’t make out her words from a distance and picked up his pace just a little until he was entirely out of the cemetery.

“That was delicious,” Klaus said to himself as he wiped away the stray bits of food from the corners of his mouth. He knew he hadn’t been away from Dallas for very long, but he never realized that during his days of depression and despair, he really missed the food here. He picked up his cup of tea and sipped on it slowly as he looked out and observed the people around him. He wondered if any of the old wrinkled faces had belonged to anyone he had known. For a moment, he thought of his brother-in-law. He still considered Ray a member of his family even though he was probably old enough to be Allison's father. Allison had mentioned that he was still around, but had decided not to make contact with his new life and family. Out of respect for his new life. He respected her self-control. Considering how quickly he left after to find Dave’s grave, he probably would have run all the way to Dallas if he knew Dave was alive. Just then, someone outside the diner caught his eye. Fuck. It was her again. Klaus quickly ducked underneath the table without a moment to waste, hoping that the woman didn’t see him. He carefully peered out; she was gone. Klaus breathed a sigh of relief before getting up and going to pay for his meal. As the waitress handed him his car, he heard the same voice from earlier utter the same word he hated hearing “Prophet, please.”  
“I’m sorry, you have the wrong person, please leave me alone” without looking at the woman again, he quickly brushed past her and made it for the door. “Please, just a moment of you ti-” before she could finish, Klaus had exited the restaurant and got into a cab, giving it the address of the only place he remembered, the small little paint shop that Dave once worked. 

During the drive, Klaus couldn’t shake that woman from his mind. He was confused as to how he could still have such loyal followers after all this time. Allison had bought him a book written about Destiny’s Children, and he knew that some people had still followed his teachings up until April 1st, 2019, the day he had told them would be the end of the world. But now, most people just considered it an overly elaborate April Fool’s Day joke. So why would someone, especially of that age, call him that. Unless... maybe in one of his spiritual sex rituals, he accidentally fathered a child. Ben had always warned him it would happen. Klaus sincerely wished that Ben was here to rub it in his face with a smug little grin. Klaus wasn’t ready to be a father anyways, especially to a child that was technically born before he was. Klaus brushed the thought off as he looked out the window at the passing buildings.

When he arrived at the address, he was surprised to see the shop was still there. The only different thing was the color of the building. Its original color had been painted over by what Klaus guessed was some sort of off-white, like an eggshell white. It reminded Klaus of his interaction with Dave at the store. The memory caused a warm sensation to flow through Klaus’s body, and the corners of his lips uncontrollably pulled up into a small smile. He stepped forward and made his way into the store. As Klaus strolled throughout the small shop, he couldn’t help but wonder if Dave’s child would be working. 

“Hello sir, can I help you find anything?” 

Klaus looked around to see a tall, handsome, and very dark-skinned boy. His heart sank a bit. While he was very impressed by the physical appearance of the man standing in front of him, he had really hoped that the voice belonged to someone who could have potentially been Dave’s son. Klaus knew that Dave’s very white genes would have never allowed for such a complexion. 

“No, thank you. I’m just browsing.” 

“Of course, sir. Let me know if you need anything.” the man said before heading behind the store’s counter. Klaus ran his fingers across the different cans of paint, reading each one’s name off quietly. Lost in his own world, he barely heard that someone else had entered the shop.

“Hey, Tom, glad to see you didn’t burn the place down while I was out,” the woman snickered as she handed the man behind the counter a bottle of sprite. “Here’s your reward for keeping everything in one piece.” 

“Ha. Ha. Very funny. It’s been three years since that tiny little mishap. Are you ever going to let it go?” Tom asked while opening his cold beverage. 

“Well, that tiny fire did give me an excuse to give the walls a fresh coat of paint. So I guess you’re forgiven.”

“Thank you.”

“So, how has business been so far?” 

“Well, we have one customer now,” Tom said, gesturing to the man in the corner, who was now running the bristles of one of the paintbrushes they sell against the skin of his arm “bit of an odd one.” It didn’t take the woman long to recognize the man standing in her shop. She slowly walked up to the man and lightly tapped him on the shoulder. 

Klaus turned around, ready to tell the man once again that he was only browsing, but instead, he came face to face with the woman he had been avoiding all day. Klaus didn’t say anything this time but simply took off out the door. He had noticed that this time the woman decided to follow behind him and began to feel a bit panicked. He started to run his way down the street when all of a sudden, he heard the woman shout out a single word that made him stop dead in his tracks.

“Dave!” 

Klaus couldn’t believe what he had heard. How did she know that name? Did she simply take note of the headstone she saw him at? But she said Dave, not David. Was it a lucky guess? He turned around slowly and looked at the woman who was softly panting as she caught up to him, “Christ, you run fast.” Klaus did not comment on the woman standing in front of him caught her breath.

He watched her as she fixed her composure. “You knew him, didn’t you?” she stated as she lowered her sunglasses to reveal a pair of eyes that Klaus had looked into not even one year ago.

“You know that name, don't you? You knew him. You knew my father.”


	2. Chapter Two

Klaus sat nervously in the backroom as the woman he now knew was Dave’s daughter closed up the shop. He wondered how the woman had come to know of his existence. Did Dave tell her about him? What did he say? Was it good? Bad? Before his mind could start predicting potential answers to his questions, she entered the room and sat down at the table across from him. She remained silent. Klaus assumed that she was probably feeling a bit of a loss for words just as he was. He took in her features. Without knowing what her mother had looked like, Klaus couldn’t be entirely sure if certain features primarily belonged to Dave or were from her mother. For example, her hair was the same shade of blonde as her fathers but could have also been a trait passed down from her mother. The one thing Klaus knew for sure was that she had her father's eyes.

“So,” she started. “Prophet isn’t your actual name, is it?”

Klaus looked at her and shook his head. “No, it isn’t. My real name is Klaus.” 

“Klaus” 

“And what about you? What’s your name?”

“Oh, I’m sorry. How rude of me to not properly introduce myself. I’m Juliet.”

“Juliet. That is a beautiful name.”

“Thank you,” the room filled again with silence. “I’m sorry, but I can’t help but be a bit confused at how after over 40 years, you still perfectly fit my father’s description of you? To be honest, I thought I was seeing a ghost at first.”

“Do you want the long version or short?” Juliet rested her elbows onto the table and placed her chin in her hands. “The long version, please. My father was the king of making stories longer than needed, and I have been missing a lot since he passed. ”

“Well, to start at the beginning, on October 1st, 1989, 43 women around the world gave birth to children with special powers. Seven of those children were adopted by a ridiculously wealthy and very heartless old man who trained them to use their powers in an attempt to prevent an impending apocalypse. In 2002, my teleporting twat of a brother got into a bit of a spat with our father and decided to teleport through time despite the old geezer’s orders. He ended up getting stuck in 2019, where he had lived 40 years alone in an apocalyptic wasteland before a crazy blonde woman hired him to be an assassin for this organization called The Commiserable or something, which is basically in charge of maintaining our timeline. During his time with them, he decided he had had enough and wanted to play superhero again and transported himself back to 2019 during our father’s funeral and told us we had a week to prevent the apocalypse from happening. Now, back then, my family was a massive wreck, so of course, we didn’t listen. Fast forward to the apocalypse; it turns out we caused it by being just like dear old dad and ignoring and abusing our sister, Vanya, who ended up blowing up the moon. To reverse what we had done, we all traveled back in time with our brother, but the dumbass dropped us into different periods of time in Dallas, and when we finally met up, we had our own new lives. Allison was married, Diego got himself thrown into the looney bin, Vanya was on some farm saving a woman and her child from society’s heterosexual hell, and I, as you may already be aware, had my cult. While I was here, I tracked down your father and tried to convince him not to enlist in the military in a last-ditch effort to save his life. Unfortunately for me, all that I ended up accomplishing was freaking him out, which ended up with him showing off his rather strong left hook, your bastard of a great uncle’s fault, by the way. In the end, I couldn’t stop him from going off to war. So I decided to go back and team up with my brothers and sisters and prevent yet another apocalypse, which, by the way, also ended up being our fault before returning home to 2019. So the gist of it is, everything that happened here 50 years ago wasn’t even a year ago for me.”

“Wow…. that’s... a lot to take in.” Juliet stood up and walked over to the mini-fridge in the corner, putting out two water bottles, handing one to Klaus. They both opened their bottles and took a sip. Juliet leaned against the wall, still trying to process everything she had just heard. “But then… how did you know my father was going to die in the war? Hadn’t you just met him before he enlisted?”

“Oh, I met your father before then; after he enlisted. It’s a bit complicated. You see, there was a magical briefcase that I stole from two well-dressed assholes that had kidnapped and beat me in a dirty hotel room after failing to murder my family. After I escaped, I was just minding my own business when all of a sudden, it transported me back in time to where I met Dave. We spent a year fighting together in Vietnam. We were in the trenches, taking heavy fire. I thought we both had dodged the bullets, but I was wrong. I called for help, but my cries fell on deaf ears. It was too late. I held him as he died.” Klaus slowly took off the chain that Dave’s military tags hung from and held them out to Juliet. “There are his tags. I’ve held onto them ever since that day.” 

Juliet walked forward and took the tags from him. She ran her fingers lightly over the engravings before handing them back to Klaus. She then sat down next to Klaus and reached up around her neck, and removed an identical chain with identical engravings, resting them on the table. “You said he died in the trenches in Vietnam, but my father wasn’t in the Army. He was a Marine, and he didn’t die.”

Klaus picked up the military tags that Juliet had placed on the table. He gave her a soft smile as he put them back around her neck, giving her cheek a soft brush with his thumb. “I guess fate dealt him a new hand of cards this round. I’m not going to lie, that deep inside, I’m hoping something I said had something to do with that decision.” 

Juliet fell silent once more. She reached down and tucked her father’s tags into her shirt before looking up at Klaus with a smile. “Klaus, would you like to join me for dinner tonight? I’m making lasagna, and I think I’ll be able to process this more with a hot meal.” 

“That would be lovely,” Klaus replied. 

“Alright, well, let me just lock everything up for the evening, and we can be on our way.” 

Juliet lived in a small white house not very far from the paint shop. What would have been pegged as very tacky decor where Klaus was from seemed like something out of a movie, and he adored it. Juliet had left him to make himself at home in the kitchen after stating very clearly during the drive here that she had a zero-tolerance for back seat chefs. Klaus slowly made his way around the room, examining each piece of decor. Finally, he stood in front of a wall covered in old photographs kept in antique frames. He leaned in to get a closer look at the people in the images. He easily recognized Dave. He reached out and gently touched the glass, his fingers outlining the picture of Dave’s face. He didn’t think it was possible, but Dave looked even more handsome after returning from the war. Klaus felt a warm sensation take over his body as he saw how Dave looked at his daughter. He could tell that he was happy. After all, Dave often spoke about how much he wanted to become a father. His eyes then fell to the young woman in the photo. She looked almost identical to Juliet, except for the eyes; she had her father’s eyes.

“Dinner is almost ready. ” Juliet called from the dining room. “You can wash up in the main bathroom. It’s just down the hall and to your left.”

Klaus peered into the dining room at Juliet, who was still busy adding the final touches to their meal. “Will do. Are you sure you don’t need any help?” 

“I’m sure! You’re my guest. Just relax!” She smiled. 

Klaus nodded and headed off the bathroom to get himself ready for dinner. After he had finished washing up, he made his way to the dining room. He entered just as she placed the plates of lasagna on the table. “Perfect timing.” 

“It all looks and smells amazing.” 

The two sat down at the table and began to eat. 

“This lasagna is amazing!” Klaus exclaimed. “I’m so happy you didn’t let me help now. I’m sure I would have messed something up.”

“Why, thank you. I’ll have to give you the recipe later.” Juliet smiled as she took a small sip of her water. “So, Klaus. I’m still a bit confused about this whole time travel ordeal. Like, I understand the series of events, but not so much the time travel.”

“To be completely honest, I don’t understand it much either. Five, the one that does all the bending of space and time, has tried to explain it to me before. I always end up zoning out, and Five’s words end up being replaced by the lyrics of Time Warp from The Rocky Horror Picture Show. Five hates that song.”

“Five?”

“Oh, yes. My brother, Five. My dad had given us all numbers instead of names, you know, to dehumanize us as much as possible. They were assigned based on how useful he saw us. Our robot mom ended up giving us proper names in the end, though. Five opted out, hence his name still being a number.”

“And you said there were seven of you? And you all have powers?”

“Yes, Luther is super strong. His body is like a gorilla, literally has monkey DNA, but all that manpower didn’t leave much room for brainpower. Diego likes sharp and shiny things; he is basically a crow with excellent aim. Allison can rumor people, which is just basically mind control and manipulation. Five, as you already know, can teleport and time travel. Ben can release these mighty and merciless alien tentacles from his body. And Vanya… I still don’t fully understand since her even having powers is brand new information. Basically, she can blow things up, and it has something to do with sound. Again, all very new.”

“And you?”

“Oh, I dabble in the dealings of the undead. See them, talk to them, harness them into existence. I even allowed my deceased brother Ben to possess me so he could hit on a chick from my cult he had a crush on”

“I see…”

“But enough about me and my weird and unusual existence. I feel like I have talked way too much about myself. What about you? What’s your story?”

Juliet looked over at a picture of her and her parents that hung on the wall. Klaus followed her gaze and smiled. “Such a beautiful family,” he said. Juliet turned her attention back to Klaus and nodded. “We really were close. We used to go on all of these adventures together, not anything too crazy, maybe a different city, or the beach. I remember my favorite adventures being the ones we would have in our living room. We’d pretend we were in a jungle looking at all the different wildlife or visiting other planets and meeting aliens. We’d make silly food like spaghetti and marshmallows and pretend it was alien food. Thinking back, it was quite ridiculous, but I treasure the memories for sure.”

“Compared to my childhood, it doesn’t seem ridiculous at all. It seems like your parents cared a lot for you.”

“They did. And then, when I was sixteen, my mother got really sick, really fast. It was so strange. We didn’t even see it coming. She was perfectly fine and healthy one day, and then a few days later, she was gone.”

Klaus reached out and gave Juliet’s arm a comforting rub. “I’m sorry. That must have been rough on you.”

Juliet smiled and gave him a reassuring nod. “I’m fine now, but back then, it was definitely hard on both my father and me. A lot changed after that; There were no more adventures, and the house became quiet. My father and I ended up becoming distant. But I mean, I was sixteen; it was bound to happen around that age at some point, right?” Juliet let out a soft sigh before changing the subject. “Anyways, I ended up becoming more active in school. I joined a lot of clubs, had my first boyfriend and my first heartbreak. A pretty normal and uneventful academic life for the most part.”

“I wouldn’t know. Despite technically being highly educated, I didn’t have a traditional education.”

“Were you homeschooled?” Juliet asked.

“I mean, in a way, I guess it was. My daily schedule was more like breakfast, then basic academics. After lunch, Dad would lock me in a chamber with the spirits of the undead. And then after a usually disappointing dinner, I would have German with my robot mother.”

“What was that like?”  
The two continued to share stories back and forth of their childhood as they finished their meal, enjoying each other’s company. 

“This was lovely,” Klaus said as he helped clear the table. “Please allow me to at least help with the cleanup.”

“Absolutely not,” she refused, “Not when we haven’t even had dessert.” Suddenly, Juliet pulled out two bottles of wine from behind her back. “Now, are you a red wine or a white wine kind of a guy.”

“I’m an every wine kind of guy.”

“Perfect.”

It didn’t take long for Klaus and Juliet to fall to the influence of the wine. He ended up telling her all about the Umbrella Academy and their adventures. With each passing moment, Klaus’s retelling of the stories became more detailed, and his gestures more theatrical. Juliet hung on every word, completely in awe of the life Klaus had lived. “It sounds like something straight out of a comic book! You guys must be so famous back home.” Klaus’s smile faded a bit as he looked down into his wine glass, giving the remaining liquid a slight swirl before downing the last of it. “We were... in another lifetime, not this one. Now, I’m just a personified walking ouija board with a drinking problem. I mean, it’s not like I wasn't like this before. Not much has changed in terms of my whole overly confident and self-destructive ways, but at least I had a period in my life where I actually made a difference. Now I have nothing.”

Juliet could see the sadness in his eyes as he spoke. Without uttering a word, she placed her wine glass down on the wooden coffee table and cuddled close to Klaus, resting her head on his shoulder. “But, you have made a difference.”

“How?”

“Truthfully, I only pursued you because of everything that happened after my mother passed. You see, that’s when he started talking about you. At first, he would just casually bring up a strange encounter he had before he enlisted, but as years went on, it became more frequent, and then that strange man got a name; Prophet. It wasn’t long till books about Destiny’s Children started appearing on the bookshelves, and newspaper clippings were posted on the fridge. I was the only family he had at this point, so I stayed with him despite believing he was slowly losing his mind. I helped take care of the paint shop and dealt with customers as he aimlessly looked out the window; I could only assume he was looking for you. Every Wednesday, we would close the shop at noon and go up and have a picnic on the grass where you used to live. To be honest, those outings were my favorite with him. It was like I had him back, even if it was only for a few hours a week. He would always read to me from the same book. It was his favorite.”

“Dune?” Klaus asked, hopeful that Dave didn’t just avoid the book after he had mentioned it to him. Juliet gave a soft chuckle.

“Why am I not even surprised that you knew that?”

There was a moment of silence between them. Klaus took a moment to process everything she had just said, clearing his throat before finally speaking. “I’m sorry if your father’s interest in me put a strain on your relationship, I-” 

“No, no, no. Do not apologize. I went on a bit of a tangent. You have nothing to apologize for. I thought my father was losing his sanity. Just by meeting you, now I know my father wasn’t going crazy. Everything he said to me wasn’t coming from a deteriorating mind; it was real.”

Klaus nodded but remained silent, unsure of how to respond. 

“And if I understood everything correctly about the whole timeline fiasco, it seems to me that the only reason I’m sitting here on this couch even talking about him to you is because of you. Without the butterfly effect of your time in the 60’s I wouldn’t be here. If you think about it, in a way, you’re sort of like-

“Oh my god! I’m sort of like your unofficial dad!”

“I mean, I was going to say….” Juliet paused as she looked up into Klaus’s eyes. The sadness had disappeared, and the light that sparkled when he had talked about his family returned. Juliet placed her head back on his shoulder and gave his arm a tight squeeze. “Actually, that’s exactly what I was going to say. Now you can’t say you have nothing; you have me.”

Klaus rested his head on top of hers and let out a small, happy sigh. “That’s right. Now I have you.”

The two sat there in silence, enjoying the comfort of each other’s company. It wasn’t until Klaus took notice of the soft snores coming from the woman clung to his arm that he realized she had fallen asleep. Very carefully, Klaus maneuvered himself out of Juliet’s clutches and picked her up. She was a bit heavier than he expected, but Klaus had never been one to commit to strength training fully. Even his smallest sister, Vanya, could easily take him down in an arm-wrestling match, and she got all her strength from playing the violin. As he carried her up the stairs, on every step, he thanked some higher power that the woman laying limp in his arms did not inherit her father’s 6 foot 1 stature.

Klaus placed Juliet into her bed and covered her body with the blanket, to which she quickly grabbed and snuggled. Klaus brushed a piece of her loose hair back against her ear and watched her for a moment. Klaus had no idea what was going to happen when he started his journey, but he would have never guessed he would have ended his first full day in Dallas getting drunk with Dave’s daughter. 

Klaus made his way back downstairs to the living room. He walked over to the picture of Dave in his military uniform, hanging on the wall. “I’ll take care of her like she is my own.” He then placed one hand upon his heart and the other in the air. “This I swear to you, Dave.”

Klaus woke up the next morning to the smell of hot coffee and bacon. He slowly sat up and wiped the sleep from his eyes. Despite spending the night in a rather costly hotel room his first night, he had definitely preferred his night on the couch. He arose from his spot and stumbled his way into the kitchen.

“Now Butterfly, I know it’s my first day as a new father, but shouldn’t I be making you breakfast?” he mumbled as he leaned his body against the door frame. A sleepy smirk pulled at his lips as Juliet turned around to greet him. He couldn’t help but be mildly amused by her ability to have a bit more energy than anyone should first thing in the morning, especially after how much they had drunk the night before. 

“Morning! Did you sleep, alright?” She asked. Klaus, still quite sleepy, gave her a small nod. “I’m glad to hear that. Feel free to help yourself to a cup of coffee while I finish up making breakfast.” 

Klaus had never particularly been the biggest fan of the bitter taste of coffee, but it always did do wonders for him the morning after a night of drinking. Klaus lazily pushed himself off the wall and walked over to the counter. He picked up the coffee pot and poured the hot, dark liquid into one of the mugs that were set next to it. He enjoyed the warmth of the mug in his hands as he slowly sipped the beverage; to his surprise, he didn’t hate it. It was a lot better than the shit Diego would buy from the convenience store down the street; Dawn and Betty were a lovely couple, but God, their coffee sucked. He wondered if it would pass the test of Five’s rather selective palate. He smiled to himself as he thought about his siblings. He wondered what they would be doing right now. He was a bit surprised at how much he missed his family at that moment. He had only been gone for only a day and a half. Klaus was then pulled out of his daze by a small wave of Juliet’s hand in front of his face. 

“Earth to Klaus, everything okay?”

Klaus grinned and walked to stand next to her. He rested his chin on her shoulder and wrapped an arm around her small waist. “Yes, sorry. I was just thinking about my brother Five. He’s a massive coffee snob, and that is putting it lightly. I was pondering about whether or not this would pass his coffee critiques.”

“Well, it’s from a little local brewery down the road from the shop. We can always pop by there to pick you up a bag or two to take home as a souvenir if you’d like.” Juliet offered while feeding him a piece of finished bacon.

“That is quite an idea, but then I’d have to get everyone a nicer gift than just a cheap airport keychain, and it just seems like… you know... a lot…”

Juliet let out a soft chuckle. “Well, if you change your mind, just let me know. Speaking of home, when are you heading back?”

“I leave bright and early tomorrow morning, at seven o’clock.”

Juliet tried to hide her disappointment at his answer, but he noticed how the corners of her lips slightly twitched to maintain her smile. He gave her waist a comforting squeeze, and she turned to face him, giving his fluffy hair a light pat.

“What a pity that you couldn’t stay longer. What else are you planning to do while you're here?”

“I only really had visited your dad’s grave on my list of things to do. Maybe I’ll pop by one last time; say a final farewell today at some point”

“I have to fill in for Tom at the shop this morning, but if you’d like, we can meet for a late lunch.” 

“That would be lovely.”

“Well, breakfast is ready. Let’s eat!”

After breakfast, Klaus drove to the paint shop with Juliet before hailing a taxi and visiting Dave’s grave for the final time on this trip. 

He sat cross-legged on the grass, drinking from the bottle of Orangina that Juliet had picked up for him.

“So, you had a daughter,” he said as he ran his fingers through the dry grass. “She looks just like her mother, lucky girl.” 

Klaus slowly leaned back until he was lying completely sprawled out across the grass. “I feel like there is not much more I can say. It’s nice to hear that I could still be a part of your life even after everything that had happened; that I still meant something to you. However, there is only so much a one-sided conversation with a piece of rock can do. It’s not like you can reply, and I don’t think I have the strength, both physically and emotionally, to conjure you back from the dead. You’re finally at peace, and as much as I miss you, I’m done being selfish.” Klaus closed his eyes and felt the breeze softly brush over his face. He listened to the sound of the birds chirping in the far off distance. He focused on his breathing, trying to allow himself to accept that this was the closest to closure that he would get. For Klaus, this was all he needed; this was all he was ready for. Without realizing, in the peace of it all, Klaus ended up dozing off.

When Klaus awoke, he sat up and gave his arms a quick stretch. He sleepily stared at Dave’s tombstone and let out a sigh. He reached forward and let his fingers graze over Dave’s name one last time before letting them rest on the words ‘loving father.’ 

“I will protect her with my life. I promise.” 

Klaus stood up and turned around slowly, saying his final goodbye before making his way down to the cemetery’s gate.  
Klaus decided to do a bit of wandering around the area, as he had only gotten a small taste of back then. Everything had changed completely. The hair salon that Allison used to work at was now replaced by a hipster-esque cafe. Next to it was a small pharmacy. He decided that it was probably in his best interest to pop in and pick up some Tylenol as he could feel the onset of a minor headache creeping into his head. As he was browsing the aisle of painkillers, he heard a familiar voice call out his name.

“Klaus? Is that you, my brother?” 

When Klaus turned around, he saw a fragile older gentleman standing in front of him. If he had not called him brother, Klaus would not have recognized the man now standing in front of him. It was Ray. Klaus had always considered Ray family even after he and his siblings had returned to 2019. He was filled with such relief at the fact that Ray had felt the same way despite them only knowing each other for such a short time. Without a moment of hesitation, Klaus wrapped his arms around his brother-in-law’s body. It was then when he realized how sickly thin Ray had become with age. “Ray, my brother. It’s been far too long.” 

“Much longer for me, I’d say. You haven’t changed one bit.” he chuckled softly, giving Klaus a quick look up and down while lightly squeezing his shoulders. “How have you been? There aren’t any pending apocalypses I should be made aware of, are there?”

“No, no. My trip is more personal than business.” Klaus answered with a smile. 

“So… is Allison with you?” Ray asked as he tried to subtlety look around to see if she was there. Klaus felt sorry for his brother-in-law. It was painfully apparent by the look on his face he was hoping she was seconds away from turning the corner. “No, she didn’t come with me.” 

Ray looked back at Klaus and gave a weak smile. He crossed his arms and gave them a small rub as he continued the conversation, trying to hide his disappointment at the reality that Allison hadn’t come. “Oh, I see. Is she doing well?”

“Yeah, she is.”

“I’m glad to hear,” Ray let out another sigh before looking down at his feet, “crazy times those were, last time we met.”

“Ray, would you like to grab a coffee or something? We could catch up. It’s only been a little less than a year for me, but I’d love to hear about how everything went down after we left.”

Ray reached out his hand and rested it on Klaus’s shoulder. “I would. I really would.” 

The two sat in the cafe for a couple of hours, sharing stories about what had happened and how their lives had changed since their time in the ’60s. Ray had remarried two years after Allison had gone. From that marriage, he had two daughters and one son who were now all spread out across the country, living their own lives with families of their own. Ray had lived a very happy life for the most part. He lost his wife to a heart attack six years prior, and the following year was diagnosed with prostate cancer. While he lived his life with no regrets remarrying and starting a family of his own, he thought about Allison and the life they might have had every day and wondered if he’d ever be able to see her again. While Klaus had only met Ray three times when he was last in Dallas, it felt he had known him for much longer. The way that Ray opened up to him about everything, without holding back, he wondered how their relationship might have turned out if things were different, how all of his sibling’s relationships would have turned out. Would he and Ray have heart-to-hearts like this? Would he have gotten on well with Vanya’s lesbian lover*? What would his relationship with Harland have been if their only interaction wasn’t preventing him from pulling a Vanya? He even found himself curious about Diego’s ex from that time, even though the first and last time he had met her, she tried to murder them, which resulted in them trying to adopt her.* 

“Oh, hey, Klaus! There you are. I was looking for you. I’m lucky I noticed you from the window on my way by” 

“Oh, hey, Juliet! I’m sorry, I lost track of time. Please join us.” Klaus pushed over in the small cafe booth and made room for her. She smiled and sat down next to him. 

“Ray, this is my daughter, Juliet. Juliet, this is my brother-in-law, Ray.” Juliet looked at Klaus and then back at Ray, who seemed utterly unphased by the introduction Klaus had just given. 

“Don’t worry. You learn quickly that there are no answers that will make any of this make any sense.”

Juliet let out a small laugh and nodded, “Best to just enjoy the mystery and accept it for what it is.”

“Time travel, yes. My siblings, even more so. Our relationships, though, easy as pie. Ray was married to my sister Allison back in the ’60s but didn’t return to the future with us all, so now he is older than Buffalo Wings, cassette tapes, and zip codes. Juliet here is the daughter of a former flame of mine that recently passed. A man who would have originally died before she was even an idea if it hadn't been for my meddling, therefore making me her indirect father via the butterfly effect. See simple.”

Ray and Juliet both looked at each other and gave a little laugh at Klaus’s explanations of their relationship.

“Wait, is that why you called me butterfly this morning?” Juliet questioned. 

“Ding ding ding, she’s a smart one, isn’t she? Another trait I’m definitely going to be crediting to your mother. Your father was a gem, but not very quick. Oh, hey! I have a crazy yet brilliant thought. Let’s all go back together.”

“What?” 

“It’s a great idea!” He turned to face Juliet. “You can meet my family! I’m sure they would be so excited to meet you. I did put them through a lot of shit the past few months. I think it would make them so happy to meet you rather than just hear that I met you.”

“I don’t know…”

“And Ray. You can see Allison again. She recently got a new hairstyle, but you know, she’s still a stunner; completely from an objective standpoint, of course, she is my sister after all.”

“I’m in,” Ray said with zero hesitation in his voice.

“Even Ray is on board.” 

“I mean, I have the shop. I have to be there…”

“Can’t Tom hold down the fort for a week or two? He seems like a competent young man.” Klaus took her hands into his and gave her his best puppy dog eyes. “Come on, butterfly. Please. Do it for your dear old papa.”

When Juliet looked into his eyes, the words left her lips before she could even further debate it with herself, “Okay.”

“Okay?” Klaus repeated, unsure if he had heard her correctly.

“Yes. Let’s do it!” Juliet said with excitement radiating from her voice. “I’ve never done anything so spontaneous before, and this just seems, it just seems right. I just need to make some calls.”

Klaus clapped his hands excitedly. 

“This is going to be amazing! The whole family together once more. We must celebrate!” he looked around the table once more with the biggest grin on his face.

“Pie?”


	3. Chapter Three

The three of them arrived at the airport early the next morning. Luckily for them, Ray was well known in the area for his work with the civil rights movement, and therefore there was no issue transferring Klaus’s first-class ticket to him. Klaus leaned against the desk, mesmerized by how his brother-in-law presented himself. If Klaus didn’t know the severity of his medical condition, he wouldn’t have suspected a thing. He noticed how Ray had a certain glow to him as he chatted up the female front desk attendant. Klaus couldn’t help but wonder if this was the charm that had won Ray Allison’s affections. Klaus then peered over at Juliet, who was fiddling with the boarding passes they had just received moments ago. 

“Booking a flight this last minute, I’m surprised we ended up with seats next to each other. Getting on the same flight was a miracle enough.” Juliet said while waving their tickets in the air. Klaus reached out and took his ticket from her and held it up to his face. “Now, be careful, young one. These are tickets, not toys.”

“Young one?” Juliet looked at Klaus, a bit confused. “If I recall correctly, you said you were born in 1989, making me two years older than you. You’re the young one, darling.”

“Ah-ha, but my sweet little croquet, you forget about all the time travel; 10 months in Vietnam then 3 years and a bit in the ’60s. I’m technically like, ballpark estimate, 34-35 years old.”

Juliet raised her eyebrow, thrown off by the words that had just left Klaus’s mouth. “Ball... park... estimate? Oh god, what have I gotten myself into.” 

Klaus gave Juliet’s nose a small, affectioned tap, but before he could utter another word, Ray had rejoined them.

“Alright, you two. Since my body is not what it used to be, the airline has kindly offered assistance to the gate. I have informed them that we are traveling together. This being said, I must ask,” Ray paused for a moment before resting his gaze specifically onto Klaus. “Does anyone have anything on their person that could potentially get us detained?”

Juliet couldn’t help but let out a laugh as Klaus responded to Ray’s innocent accusation with a playfully ‘how-dare-you’ gesture and a scoff. 

“Just covering our asses. Y’all ready?”

Juliet and Klaus both gave Ray a thumbs up before the woman at the desk approached them with a wheelchair and a tall and quite attractive gentleman.

“Hello, I’m Mattia. I will be escorting you to your gate this morning.” 

"Enchanté," Klaus replied, giving a little bow. The man seemed unphased by Klaus’s antics as if he had almost expected the response. 

“Now, let’s get you guys to your gate,” Mattia said, gesturing for Ray to sit down in the wheelchair. Ray looked down at the contraption and let out a sad sigh. Klaus and Juliet looked at each other with sympathetic eyes. They could both tell that it was difficult for Ray to accept that his body was no longer capable of doing such mundane tasks as getting through airport security on his own.

Klaus gave a sly grin before running off without a single explanation as to what he was doing. 

“Where the hell is he off to now?” Ray questioned. Juliet had no idea and could only reply with a shrug of her shoulders and a shake of her head.

A few minutes later, Klaus had returned, rolling along in a wheelchair of his own; a smile plastered across his face. “Now, we both get to breeze through security in style.”

“Boy, you’re just as crazy as the day I met you.” Ray shook his head in disapproval as he confidently sat down in the wheelchair being held out for him. Klaus looked over at Juliet and gave her a wink. Juliet noticed how Ray tried to hide the small smile that had snuck onto his face because of Klaus. She couldn’t help but be fascinated by Klaus and his ability to make any situation light. 

Mattia let a small chuckle slip past his lips as he watched Klaus roll himself around in the chair. “You know, we have a bunch on the other side of the counter. You could have just asked for another one.” 

“Yeah, but that would have been too simple. Where is your sense of adventure, Mattia?”

“You got me there, sir. I guess you could say I’m more a ‘thrill-of-the-hunt’ type guy than an adventurous one.”

“And, are you good at hunting, Mattia?”

“Very. It’s almost like a supernatural ability. Some would even call it a gift.”

“Alright, you two, if you don’t mind, could we hold off on the flirting till after we get through security?” Ray said with a laugh

“Well, Mattia, you take Ray, and I’ll take Klaus,” Juliet remarked confidently while placing her hands on the handles of Klaus’s wheelchair.

Mattia gave an approving nod, and the group rolled off together through the airport. It didn’t take long for the group to make it past security. The only pause in their journey being when Klaus was, not so surprisingly, pulled out for an extra little pat-down, which he simply responded to with a “Be gentle with me,” Resulting in a few rolling of the eyes from security and others in line, but Klaus didn’t care. All that mattered was that amongst the sea of judging assholes was Juliet, who had let out a soft laugh at his playful comment. 

“Well, folks, we have made it to your gate. When the ladies at the desk call for first-class, Mr. Chestnut can go straight ahead. Unfortunately, the two of you will have to wait for your sections. Still, the cabin crew has already been notified that you are traveling together, and you will be allowed to occasionally check in with Mr. Chestnut as you see fit.”

“Thank you for helping us get through and putting up with the shenanigans of my friend here,” Ray said as he reached out and patted Klaus’s knee.

“Yes, Thank you so much for the assistance,” Juliet said as she shook Mattia’s hand. Klaus noticed how she secretly had slipped a bill of unknown value into Mattia’s hand. He was impressed at her subtle skill and wondered how she acquired such a slick sleight of hand.

“The pleasure was all mine. I hope you guys have a lovely trip. Until we meet again.”

“I hope it will be soon.”

“I’m sure it’ll be sooner than you think.”

Klaus let out a little laugh and didn’t think much of the comment, rolling around the waiting area in his wheelchair, trying to convince Ray to play bumper-chairs with him. But Juliet couldn’t shake the feeling that there was something almost promising about what had just been said. Her eyes followed Mattia as he made his way through the crowds of people. She watched him stop to talk to a group of people, who didn’t look to be out of place but gave Juliet a weird vibe. Mattia seemed to be addressing one particular woman in the group, but Juliet could only see the back of her head, her long brown wavy hair cascading down her back. For some reason, Juliet couldn’t take her eyes off her. Suddenly, the woman that Juliet was entranced by turned around and made eye contact with Juliet, her dark brown eyes staring directly into Juliet’s blue ones. Before Juliet could properly react, Klaus had rested his elbow on her shoulder, pulling her attention away from the woman across the airport and onto him. “Now, what in this duller than dinner with Dad airport could have possibly captured your interest?”

“I…,” she started as she looked back at where the group was sitting, only to find the chairs empty. Juliet turned her gaze around to Klaus and gave him a bright smile. “Oh… it was nothing. I’m sure it’s just my eyes playing tricks on me.” 

“Ahh, I had that problem before. Then I realized my eyes weren’t playing tricks and the dead people were actually very real. Fun times.” 

“That sounds like it would have been rough.” 

Klaus simply shrugged then wrapped his arm around her shoulder. “Enough of the past; we have forty-five minutes until we have to board, and Ray is being a bit of a buzzkill and won’t have a wheelchair race with me. So what should we do?”  
“Let’s pop over to that shop over there. You still need to get something for your family.” She suggested.  
“Lead the way!”

The two walked to the small, very overpriced souvenir shop.  
As soon as Klaus entered the shop, he picked up a blue baseball cap with DALLAS embroidered in white and checked its tag. “This baseball cap is twenty dollars. Who needs a twenty-dollar baseball cap that just says Dallas on it?” Klaus questioned as he put the cap on and checked himself out in the mirror. “I mean, it looks good on me, but let’s be honest, what doesn’t.”  
Juliet let out a laugh as she picked up the red version of it. “I know, prices are ridiculous. I guess that’s what you get for shopping for souvenirs at the last minute. If you think about it, the extra price is kind of like a late fee.” she then placed the red cap on her head and turned to face Klaus. “How do I look?”  
“Like forty dollars cause we look too good in these dumb hats not to get them.” Klaus then took the caps and walked up to the cash register, handing them to the woman working there.  
“Why are you buying them already?” Juliet questioned, walking up and standing next to him. “You still need to get something for your family.”  
Klaus looked at her and then reached behind her, grabbing six Dallas themed keychains from a small rack behind her. “Done.”  
Juliet playfully rolled her eyes at Klaus and lightly elbowed him in the side.  
Once the items had been paid for, the two rejoined Ray at the gate. They killed time by listening to Ray tell stories about the civil rights moments he was involved with until their flight boarded.

After the plane finished its takeoff, Juliet had gone to go check on Ray. Klaus stared aimlessly out the window as he waited for her return. He watched as the clouds floated down below the plane and let his mind wander about the possible reactions his sibling will have to their surprise guests. He was a bit worried about how Allison would react to Ray, but he had a feeling it would all work out for the best.  
“Ray is doing fine,” Klaus heard a voice say. When he looked up, he saw that Juliet had returned. “He seems very comfortable in first class and is enjoying all of the perks and privileges,” she reported. She then reached up into the overhead compartment and pulled out a brown box tied with a thin piece of twine.  
“That’s good to hear. I’d be rather pissed if he was letting it go to waste.” Klaus said with a laugh as Juliet sat next to him. He then eyed the package she was holding in her hands. “Now, what do you have there?”  
Juliet looked down at the package in her hands and let out a soft sigh before handing it out for Klaus to take. “It’s for you; from my father.”  
Klaus couldn’t believe what she had just said. “Your father?” he asked as he slowly took the box from Juliet.  
“When my father became too old and frail to continue going on our Wednesday picnics, he gave me this. He said if you ever returned, he wanted you to have it. I would have given it to you sooner, but I had to figure out where I had put it. Then by the time I found it, we were so busy getting me packed to go on this trip I couldn’t find the right moment to bring it up.”  
Klaus took a deep breath before carefully untying the twine and slowly removing the top of the box. Inside of the box was Dave’s copy of Dune, and a letter addressed to him. Klaus felt his heart tense up as he gently ran his fingers over his name, written in Dave’s handwriting. He let out a quiet chuckle as he remembered the final moments that he and Dave had shared together in the 60s. He wondered what Dave could possibly have written to him.  
“Thank you,” Klaus said, reaching out to give her hand a tight squeeze. “For not only giving this to me but for not getting rid of it. I know if I was in your situation, I would have either opened it, or thrown it away, or tried to pawn whatever was inside for drug money. You have a lot more faith in people than I ever have.”  
“I won’t lie, I almost did throw it away. When he passed away, and I was going through his things, I put it in the pile of things that could be trashed or donated. But when it came down to it, I just couldn’t. I had a strange gut feeling that I had to keep this.”  
“I’m glad you trusted your intuition.”  
“Me too.”  
Klaus then took the cover and placed it back onto the box.  
“You’re not going to read the letter?” Juliet asked. “I can always go check on Ray again if you want some alone time.”  
Klaus smiled at her and gave her hair a ruffle. “I can read it later. I’d rather live in the moment with you.”  
Juliet let out a small laugh, which ended up transitioning into a little yawn. “Sorry, I was a bit excited about our trip, so I didn’t get a lot of sleep.”  
“That’s fine,” Klaus said, pulling her head to rest on his shoulder. “I’ll wake you up when we get there.”  
Juliet thanked him and cuddled in close to his arm. It wasn’t long before she drifted off to sleep. Klaus then rested his head on hers and closed his eyes, but couldn’t stop thinking about the letter. He wondered if he’d ever be able to open it if he could ever allow himself the full closure of Dave’s final words.

When they arrived, Ray had mentioned that he was fatigued and would need to rest for a bit before he met Allison. They decided to take a cab straight from the airport to the hotel that Juliet and Ray had booked for their trip. Once Ray was all settled in his hotel room, Juliet and Klaus popped down and made dinner reservations for the family later in the evening before making their way over to Five and Luther’s apartment.  
“I’m not going to lie. I’m a little nervous about meeting your family.”  
“What? Why?”  
“You made them all sound so fascinating.”  
“With a drink in my hand, my stories tend to get a bit exaggerated. They’re honestly quite a boring lot.”  
“Boring? I guarantee even the played down version of the stories would have amazed me. We have lived very different lives. You are by far the most exciting thing that has ever happened to me.  
“Well, don’t get your hopes up for excitement and adventure. Things have been pretty chill since we have been back.” Klaus said as he turned the doorknob of his brother's apartment. Before Klaus could even fully open the door, he was greeted by one of Diego’s knives flying towards him. “The fuck!” he shouted as the knife barely missed his face, landing in the wooden frame of the door. “Jesus Fucking Christ Diego, what the hell?” Klaus shouted.  
“Sorry, man! I wasn’t expecting it to be you. You really should knock.”  
“Knock? You think my lack of skin to door contact is the issue here? You just threw a knife at me!”  
“Again, I wasn’t expecting you!”  
“And who might have you been expecting to give such a warm, knife-to-the-face, welcome to? Jehovah’s Witness?”  
“No.”  
“An overly aggressive door-to-door salesperson?”  
“No, no. Although there has been an increase in those guys as of late.”  
“Diego.”  
“There has been some strange…” Diego trailed off as he caught sight of Juliet, who was staring at the knife embedded in the doorframe. “Who is that?”  
Klaus let out a gasp. His brother’s impulsively idiotic antics had caused him to completely forget that Juliet was there with him.  
“Diego, this is Juliet. Juliet, this is my moronic, half-witted, knife-wielding brother, Diego.”  
“It’s nice to meet you. I have heard a lot about you.” Juliet said, holding her hand out to Diego. “The pleasure is all mine,” Diego replied, taking her hand and giving it a small shake. “My apologies for the rather uncordial welcome.”  
“Uncordial? That’s a new word for you. Did Five teach you that, or is it from your word of the day calendar?”  
“What the hell, man. I know fancy words.”  
“Du hast den arsch offen”  
“Vete a la chingada”  
“Sorry to interrupt. As much as I am loving watching this affectionate sibling interaction, may I be pointed in the direction of the washroom?”  
“Oh, yes. It’s straight down the hall on the right.” Diego answered.  
Klaus looked at his brother with a bewildered glare. “What are you talking about? It’s on the left.”  
“You have only been here once, and you didn’t even use the bathroom.” Diego challenged.  
“Just goes to further prove you’re an idiot.”

Juliet put up both of her arms to silence the bickering brothers.“It’s all good. I’ll figure it out. Thank you both.” She then made her way down the hall as Klaus and Diego walked made their way into the small kitchen.

“So. Calendar?” Klaus taunted.  
“Yup. Cordial, adjective, meaning warm and friendly. But I added the prefix ‘un-.’”  
“Wow, good job. My apologies for insulting such an extraordinary linguist.”  
“I hate you.”  
“I missed you too, Diego,” Klaus said, blowing his brother a small kiss. Diego pretended to catch it with his hand and toss it to the side, causing Klaus to give a pout. “Still an asshole, I see. Good to see not much has changed. Where are the others?”

“Last I checked, Luther is still asleep, but the others will be here in a little bit. I think they’ll all be surprised that you brought a girl home. She’s cute, but don’t you think you're moving a little fast? Introducing her to the family is quite a big step.”  
“What the hell are you talking about?”  
“Juliet”  
“Juliet? Dude, Juliet is Dave’s daughter.”  
“Dave? Like your Vietnam War boyfriend?”  
“Yes, that’s the one.”  
“Don’t you think dating your deceased ex’s daughter is crossing a line?”  
“When in the fifteen minutes I’ve been back, have I said I am dating her?”  
“Then why is she here?”  
“To meet her messed up little family. Since her parents have both passed, and her whole existence is due solely to us meddling in the ‘60s, I’ve taken her under my wing. So, just as a precaution, no hitting on your niece.”  
“My nie- you know, screw it. Don’t worry. I wouldn’t dream of hitting on my niece.”

Juliet made her way down the hallway. “Straight down the hall, last door on the left? On the right?” she quietly muttered, questioning whether to trust Klaus or Diego when it came to their clashing opinions on the location of the bathroom. While she had a feeling Diego was right, Juliet decided to go with Klaus as he would probably be the most offended of the two if he had found out she didn’t trust him. She turned to the door to the left and slowly turned the door handle before peering inside; it was a bedroom. Juliet shook her head. Just as she had thought. Before Juliet could move, she heard the door open behind her, and a burst of hot steam hit her back. She slowly turned around only to see a muscular man with a very huge and very hairy body making his way out of the bathroom. Juliet was shocked by the physique of the man standing in front of her. Sure, Klaus had told her all about his siblings, but seeing them, especially him, was something she didn’t expect, especially when the small towel draped around the man’s waist did not leave much to the imagination. Luther, who had been drying his face off with a cloth, hadn't noticed the girl standing in front of him and had started walking towards his room, the room Juliet was currently standing in the doorway of. Juliet, who had no idea how to properly catch Luther’s attention without making it awkward, could only let out a small cough as a warning. 

Luther, startled by the sudden sound, looked down at Juliet, who gave a very awkward little wave. 

“Oh shit!” Luther gasped as he took a few steps back, unfortunately stepping onto a small part of the floor that had fallen victim to a splash of water, causing him to fall rather ungracefully to the floor.

“Oh my god! Are you okay?” Juliet asked in a panic as she carefully made her way to his side, holding out her hand to try and help. 

“I’m fine, all good here,” Luther answered awkwardly as he quickly did his best to sort himself and pick himself up off the floor. After scrambling to his feet himself, he looked down at the smaller woman in front of him, only to notice her eyes were glued to the wall next to her, and a bright red tint had formed on her cheeks “your… towel.” she softly whispered. 

“My towel?” Luther repeated before looking down, realizing that his towel had fallen from his waist during his slip up. “Fuck” he muttered as he quickly reached down to grab it, covering only his manhood as he ham-handedly made his way around Juliet into his room, repeating, “I am so sorry. I am so sorry.”

Once Juliet heard the door close behind her, she rushed into the bathroom and shut the door. She walked up to the mirror and patted her reddened cheeks. She turned on the tap and flicked some cold water onto her face, hoping it would help with the redness. She couldn’t help but let out a little laugh as she replayed what had just happened in her head.

-

After Juliet had finished up in the bathroom, she made her way to rejoin Klaus and Diego, who were now in the kitchen, sitting at a small table by the window.  
“Did you find the bathroom, alright?” Diego asked.  
“Yes, I did. I also met your brother Luther on the way. From the stories Klaus has told me, I knew he would be quite large, but I had no idea he’d be that huge.”

“Yeah, he can be a lot to take in when you first meet him,” Diego said before standing from his chair. “Please have a seat, Juliet. Can I get you anything? A glass of water? Coffee? Tea?”

“Thank you, Diego. A glass of water would be perfect.” Juliet answered.

“Not a problem. It’s the least I could do to make up for earlier events.”

“I’ll have a glass of water, too, seeing as I was the one you almost killed.”

Diego simply responded to Klaus’s request with a soft grunt before grabbing a pitcher of water from the fridge. Just as Diego started pouring the water into two glasses, Luther entered the kitchen, a towel draped around his neck. 

“Hey, Diego. Who’s the hot chi-'' before Luther finished his sentence, he finally noticed the other two people in the room. “Oh shit.”’

“Hey Luther, this hot chick is Juliet and for the love of all things good, get out more; it doesn’t have to be far, just get your ape ass out of the family tree,” Klaus said, getting up to grab his glass of water.

“Family tree? Does she have powers like us?” Luther questioned.

“Nah, man, Juliet is our niece.” Diego clarified as he picked the remaining glass of water.

Luther looked at Diego, confused, before trying to figure out how that was even possible.

“Don’t hurt yourself there with the math; it doesn’t add up to her being biologically our niece. Klaus has just taken it upon himself to adopt a full-grown adult.” Diego walked over to Juliet and placed the water in front of her, leaning in to whisper to her, “Blink twice if you’re being held against your will.” 

Juliet chuckled softly, “Thank you, Diego. I am actually delighted that he considers me a part of the family. I have no living relatives on my mother’s side of the family, and what exists on my father’s side of the family are homophobic, racist bigots that my father kept me away from growing up. Since my father died, it’s just been me. It’s nice to have a family again, even if it isn’t exactly in a conventional sense.”

“Well, damn. Welcome to the family, Juliet.” Diego smiled. 

“Well, it’s nice to meet you, Juliet. Welcome to the family.” Luther added

“Wait, Juliet said you two had already met in the hallway,” Klaus said, eyeing his brother suspiciously.

“Well, it was a rather brief encounter. He had just finished taking a shower and was on his way to his room. Not a lot of time for a proper introduction.” 

“Wait. Were you naked!” Klaus exclaimed.

“No, no, I was wearing a towel.” Luther tried to explain, though the look on Klaus’s face remained unchanged from it’s judging expression. 

“Wouldn’t it have been funny if your towel fell down like in one of those cheesy movies?” Diego laughed. Luther remained silent with the exception of a nervous little cough that involuntarily escaped his throat while his cheeks flushed with embarrassment.

“Oh. My. God. Your towel totally fell, didn’t it!” Diego laughed. 

“Luther, what the hell!” Klaus shouted, throwing an oven mitt that was lying on the counter at his brother. 

“It was an accident! I just fell, and it slipped.” Luther defended. “It’s not like anyone told me we had a female guest. And it’s my place! I’ve always just walked to my room in a towel after taking a shower.”

Diego was now bent over, clutching his sides, which had become sore from laughing at his brother’s humiliation. 

“Wait a second…,” Klaus paused to think for a moment, and the room grew silent as they waited for him to finish his sentence. 

“Have your sexy bits gone simian too?”

“What!” Luther shouted as Diego couldn’t help but burst into yet another fit of laughter.

“I’m curious! I haven’t seen it since we were kids, you know, before you went all ‘Planet of the Apes.’”

Just then, Allison and Vanya walked into the kitchen area. Vanya simply ignored the comment and immediately made her way to the fridge to get herself a cold glass of juice. On the other hand, Allison was less than impressed at the conversation she had walking in on. A disapproving look plastered on her face made her annoyance known. “Well, this is not the conversation I wanted to walk in on,” she muttered as she leaned against the counter. “If you’re going to answer that, Luther, please do so after I leave.”

“I have no intention of revealing that information, especially to him.”

“Come on! We’re brothers! What happens if Vanya blows shit up again, and the only way I can identify your roasted remains is by your misshapen mutant shlong.”  
“This is such a weird family,” Vanya commented while sipping on her glass of juice.

“Drop it, Klaus!” sneered Luther.

Allison couldn’t help but roll her eyes before they moved from her brothers and landed on Juliet. “Oh, you have a guest. Hello, I’m Allison Hargreeves. I apologize for the inappropriate behavior of my idiot brothers.” she greeted, walking up to Juliet and extending her arm. Juliet stood up and shook Allison’s hand. “I’m Juliet Katz. There is no need to apologize. The sibling interactions have been quite a source of amusement. I am an only child, so I never got to have this. It’s nice.”  
“Katz… why do I recognize that name?” Vanya questioned.

“Katz was the last name of our brother’s past love.” stated Five, who had appeared out of nowhere, leaning against the counter. “I assume, Juliet is his daughter.”

“You have assumed correctly. And you must be Five.” Juliet replied.

“The one and only. What gave it away? My superior deduction skills or the fact I am the only one of my siblings that is physically a teenager.”

“I’d say a bit of both. Eyes closed, I’d still have guess the same”

Five have a satisfied smirk before pushing himself up off the counter and walking in front of Juliet. “Well, Juliet, considering you hopped on a plane with a man you just met to meet his superhero family, you are either ridiculously trusting or just plain crazy.” he then stuck his hand out to shake hers. “Either way, you’ll fit in nicely. Welcome to the family.”

“Thank you, Five.” Juliet smiled before turning to address everyone in the room. “I’ve heard so much about all of you from Klaus. It’s a bit surreal meeting you all, and so soon after learning about you. I hope to get to know more of you guys during my visit.”

“I think you already know quite a bit about Luther,” Diego teased.

“Shut up, Diego,” Luther grumbled.

“Oh! I almost forgot,” Klaus exclaimed. “We have dinner reservations tonight at that hotel by the park we used to sneak out to when we were kids.”

Luther looked over at his brother, trying to recall what hotel he was talking about. “Is it one with the weird art installation outside?” 

“That’s the one! Be there by 6pm sharp, and look nice. We have a surprise.”

“Was Juliet not the surprise?” Five asked.

“She is one of two,” Klaus answered.

Allison ran her fingers through her hair. This wasn’t the first time Klaus had made surprise ‘dinner reservations,’ and she had to be the one to deal with the consequences of his antics. “Is the surprise that you’ve made reservations at a restaurant we can’t afford, and I’m going to have to rumor yet another pompous ass to pay for our meals?” 

Klaus shook his head at his sister and smiled smugly. “It is not, but also, don’t act like that wasn’t an amazing evening. You totally enjoyed rumoring that douchebag. Don’t think I didn’t notice you rumor him to tip the poor waitress he made cry two hundred dollars before we left.”

“I mean, if I’m going to use my powers, may as well get some justice,” Allison said with a nod.

“Then it’s settled. Hotel at 6pm.” Luther confirmed as he looked around at his siblings. They all nodded in agreement, then all turned to check the time on the clock that hung above the stove; it read 4:30.

“Well, if we are meeting at 6pm, we should probably head home to get ready,” Vanya said, hopping off the counter. “With how long it takes Allison to get ready, if we leave now we might make it on time.”

Allison gave a forced laugh, “You’re hilarious.”

“Am I wrong?”

Allison shrugged her shoulders and dismissed her sister’s harsh-but-true comment. “Enjoying a glass of pinot grigio while getting dolled up is nothing I will be shamed for.”

“Amen, sister,” Klaus shouted, holding up his glass of water as if to cheers to the comment. 

“Would you like to join us, Juliet? We can have a mini girls night before meeting the boys.” Vanya offered.

“Yeah, come and get ready with us! I’d love to get to know you more.” Allison added.

“While I appreciate the invite, I already have a rather important pre-dinner arrangement, but we must have a girls night before my visit here is over.”

Allison nodded, “Fair enough. We’ll see you tonight!”

Allison and Vanya said their goodbyes and exited the apartment. 

“I should head home, too. While pinot grigio isn’t my style, a little pre-game before dinner, especially with this family, wouldn’t hurt. Something manly, like a nice glass of whiskey or a beer…”

“Oh, shut up and stop acting like you aren’t going to go home and pour yourself a glass of rosé  
.”

Diego lightly smacked Klaus upside the head as he made his way towards the door. “Ain’t nothing wrong with a little rosé  
. See you guys tonight!” 

“Well, I’m going to take a nap since at least one should be sober to make sure the boozed-up-baboons don't cause trouble. Pleasure meeting you, Juliet.” And with a flash, Five transported to his room.

Luther shook his head. “I don’t even know why he does that. His room is just down the hall.”

“Lazy bastard,” Klaus commented. “Well, we best be on our way. Unless you want to finally answer my earlier inquiry.” 

“Get out,” Luther grunted as he pointed to the door.

“Alright, alright, we’re leaving,” uttered Klaus as he threw his hands up in defense while scurrying out of the apartment. “Peace out, my primate penised kin.”

Juliet chuckled softly and turned to Luther. “Well, it was lovely meeting you, Luther.”

“Sorry about how it happened. Rather embarrassing.” he apologized.

“No, no, please don’t apologize,” Juliet turned to look out the door Klaus had left wide open when he ran out of the apartment. “My life before meeting Klaus was very uneventful. I was honestly worried it would always be that way,” Juliet paused and turned back to Luther, giving him a smile. “Our first meeting is a story I look forward to sharing in the future. I hope once you no longer feel embarrassed by it, you can share it and have a laugh at the ridiculousness of it all as well.”

Luther returned her warm smile. “You’re pretty cool, Juliet. I’m glad you're in our lives now.”

“I’m glad, too.”

A brief moment of silence between the two before Klaus’s voice echoed down the hall, calling for Juliet. 

“Well, I’ll see you tonight, Luther.”

“See you then,” Luther said with a wave.

Klaus waited inside the hotel’s restaurant, sipping on a glass of red wine as he waited for his siblings to arrive. He looked around and enjoyed the interior of the space. Klaus remembered the hotel well from his childhood. He remembered how he would get drunk at the park and piss on its walls. How the elderly security man that worked there would often chase him down, but even in his drunken state, Klaus could easily outrun him. Klaus let out a defeated sigh as he remembered that these memories only exist in his mind now. That dear old Jack, the security guard had no memories of their interactions, bless his soul.

“Wow, Klaus. You look actually quite dapper.” Allison’s voice broke Klaus’s chain of thought, and he stood up to greet her, giving her a kiss on the cheek. “My dear sister, you look simply ravishing.” he beamed, looking her up and down. “Perfect.” He then turned his attention to his shorter sister, standing next to Allison, also looking very dolled up. “Vanya? Is that you?” Klaus questioned.

Vanya let out a small chuckle and did a little stumbly spin. “Yeah, apparently, the more pinot grigio I drink, the more open I am to things like Allison giving me a makeover.” 

“Doesn’t help that the more pinot grigio I drink, the more persuasive I become.” 

“You mean the more persistent.” 

Klaus watched as his two tipsy sisters laughed and joked with each other. He wondered if they had been like this for a while, and he had just missed it while he was wallowing in his crippling depression. The corner of his lips turned upwards; they were becoming a family. “Let's sit down and wait for the others. They should be here soon,” he suggested, pulling out the two chairs for his sister.

“Really? Not even Five? He is usually such a stickler for time.” Vanya commented

“I’ve been here since 5:30.” 

The three siblings jumped in surprise at the sudden appearance of their brother Five, dressed in an all black suit, hair perfectly slicked back. Allison leaned in and lightly smacked her brother's arm. “The shit Five, where did you come from? And why do you look so good?” 

“The bar, of course.” Five reached up and tightened his tie. “We were told to dress nice, were we not?” 

Luther and Diego both arrived at the same time. “Hey, guys, did we miss anything?” Luther asked. 

“Nope, we all just got here,” Vanya answered, playing with the charm bracelet that hung from her wrist. 

“Excellent. Damn, Five. You look good.” Diego commented before looking around the table. “Where is Juliet?”

“She’s upstairs. She’ll be joining us soon. Please, everyone, sit, relax.”

Klaus looked over to the man at the front desk who had been waiting for Klaus to signal him that all the expected guests had arrived. Klaus gave him a nod, and the man picked up the phone and called up to Ray’s room to inform them everyone was there. Klaus sat back in silence as he watched as his siblings interact with each other. He thought about how much he had missed this, how much he had missed them, and looked forward to more times like this. 

A few minutes had passed, and Klaus looked over to see if Juliet and Ray had arrived. As if the universe had planned it, his eyes met Juliet’s just as she entered the room. She looked absolutely stunning. She gave him a small smile as she leaned in to whisper to Ray, their arms linked. He noticed how she was giving Ray’s arm a comforting rub, just as she had done for him back in Dallas. He knew Ray must have been nervous about this, who wouldn’t be; he had been waiting for this day for 60 years, unsure if it would even happen. At this point, everyone except Allison had noticed Klaus’s attention shift and had followed his gaze to land their eyes on Juliet and an older gentleman; despite Ray being well into his 90’s, it was obvious to them who the man clung to Juliet's arm was.

“Well, I’ll be damned,” Five clapped his hands together and grinned; Both Diego and Luther were speechless; Deigo covered his mouth with both hands as Luther’s jaw dropped. 

“Who is the old man with Juliet?” Vanya asked, confused as she, unlike her siblings, had never met Ray before.

Allison's eyes widened as she realized what Klaus’s surprise was. She bolted up from her chair and looked at her family. They all looked back at her with comforting glances. She slowly began to turn around until her eyes finally connected with the man she had to bid a heartbreaking farewell to months before. With a shaky voice, his name softly left her lips.

“Ray.”


End file.
